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Ok , i may be kind of both venting and asking a questions at the same time here . I went to a party on the weekend and there was a cute young couple there .
I hade actually met the male half before .On the night i met him he kind of introduced himself by saying , "g'day my name is ..., this is a picture of my g'friend and a pic of her 18mth old that i adore ". he later explained that he had been with her since the bub was four mths old . i had been warned that the mum was a bit reserved and quiet so i made a special effort to talk to her at the party , she had hardly been out in months . As i said ..cute young couple.
That night she got quite tipsy an giggled as she told me that she hardly ever drank so it was nice to be able to let her hair down . i asked if her sis was babysitting all morning too in case she would not be well in the morning .She told me how her sis was babysitting until the mid afternoon so i told her not to feel guilty about being tipsy and enjoying herself . i knew that she was not breastfeeding , we were with a good small group of people and no kids pregnant , so i told her that it is ok to be a little tipsy. She also spent quite a bit of time in the spa (hot tub) . Later in the evening my date (the host who i will refer to as BF though i won't tell him that ..) and i kept a closer eye on reminding people that if they had consumed too much alcohol they shouldn't get back in the spa. would mean just too much dehaydration and danger , especially in combination with the heat of night . The young mum did reach this stage and we helped her to join her partner in the spare room .
Problem is that tonight my BF rang me to tell me that the young mum had a miscarriage and he had been around comforting her partner . She had not mentioned it to anyone present , but she was about 10 weeks pregnant. I feel the pain for her and also for her partner .
But i am also kind of pissed off that she had drunk enough to be quite socially lubricated and share "mummy talk" but never once say (giggle even ) , "oops , i might have to slow down (not drink at all , dammit !) as i am in my first trimester of pregnancy." If she had of felt the sightest bit worried about the drinking and said this , i would also have discouraged hopping in the spa !
The studies i have seen and what i remember from being pregnant are still a bit vague on the dangers of spa (hot tub) use in early pregancy , but they discourage it . They mostly mention the chance of birth defects . Can also remember the Dr discouraging public spas in first trimester as the chemicals are higher and greater risk of infectious diseases.
has anyone heard / seen any thing that liks miscarriage to spa use ? Or is this one night of misadventure (although foolish in my opinion) not likely to be the cause ?
I don't know if i will ever mention any of this to her (probably feeleing awful / guilty enough as it is) , it has just gotten me thinking .
And yeah , i know there is no reason as i never knew she was pregnant , but being ten years older ,i feel guilty about kind of encouraging her to join in the fun the other girls were having.

Here you go...

"New research suggests that warnings against hot tub use during pregnancy have some basis in reality.
Women were twice as likely to suffer miscarriages if they took dips in hot tubs during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, a survey of San Francisco-area women found.

The findings don't definitively link hot tub use to miscarriages. Instead, they only imply some sort of connection exists. However, study author Dr. De-Kun Li says that should be enough to keep newly pregnant women -- and those who wish to become pregnant -- out of hot tubs.

"It's a personal choice at this point, but why take the risk?" asks Li, an epidemiologist with the Kaiser Permanente Research Institute in Oakland, Calif.

Doctors have advised pregnant women against use of hot tubs and whirlpools for some time. But previous research hasn't provided enough information to give women with a firm recommendation about hot tub use, Li says.

Researchers do know, however, that high body temperatures caused by fever can lead to birth defects, especially those that prevent the skull or spinal cord from forming properly.

For the latest study, which will be published in the Nov. 15 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, Li and his colleagues turned to a 1996-1998 survey of 1,063 pregnant women from the San Francisco region.

About 10 percent of the women reported using hot tubs during the early months of their pregnancies. These women were more likely to be white, wealthy and college-educated than the others surveyed; they were also more likely to drink alcohol.

The women who used hot tubs more than once a week were 2.7 times more likely to suffer miscarriages than those who didn't use them; the miscarriage rate was two times greater among those who used hot tubs once a week.

Li acknowledges the study has limitations. It doesn't prove hot tub use causes miscarriages, but only suggests there may be a connection between the two. It's possible the researchers missed factors that could contribute to the miscarriage rate."

Well, I know I watched a special on hot tubs and I wouldn't get in them period. I remember Legionnare's Disease (which is an odd and hard to diagnose) broke out in a city especially when these people were around hot tubs or gotten into one. I am very wary for the diseases they have a tendency to spout, unless it is rigorously taken care of.

Nopen's post was very informative because I don't know about pregnancy and hot tubs, I just know they're mostly nasty harbors of illness, which I can imagine would be hard if you are pregnant and can't take meds, but once in awhile I think would be okay. Besides, I wouldn't feel guilty, nobody forced her in there and she was drinking as it was.